There's an adorable (and very funny) children's book called 'Time Stops for No Mouse' by Michael Hoeye, which has as its protagonist a mouse called Hermux Tantamoq. And at the end of every adventure-filled day, Hermux writes the things for which he is thankful in his little mousey journal. So I tried it myself. And I can tell you that as a thing to do, it provides both comfort and perspective, and has been useful in dark times.
So here (in no particular order) is a list of the things I have been thankful for recently:
Caitlin Moran: How to Be a Woman
Two Door Cinema Club: Something Good Can Work
Andre Kertesz: Washington Square, New York
Maltesers
The Hour
The video that showed me how to tie a 1940s 'do-rag'. Finally!
Alan Bennett
Stephen Fry's brain
Getting a sloppy baby kiss from BabyBF. (Well, I think she was kissing me. She might just have been trying to put my head in her mouth, which is what she does with everything else she encounters. For the sake of argument, let's go with the former.)
My pals
Gardens of Time
Remembering that I had eaten some beetroot, and therefore was not in imminent danger of death. I'll leave you to work that one out for yourselves.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Friday, 8 July 2011
184. Nora Ephron
I think that Nora Ephron is marvellous. Even if you would rather stick hot pins in your eyes than watch 'When Harry Met Sally' ever again (me), or 'Sleepless in Seattle' more often than once every decade (me), or 'You've Got Mail' unless profoundly ill or depressed and separated from usual critical faculties (this has happened to me) - she is still marvellous. And I'll tell you why.
She wrote 'Silkwood'.
She wrote 'Heartburn'.
(That would - should - be enough for anybody, frankly, but there's more)
She made Julie & Julia which is very sweet but which also had Meryl Streep, Stanley ('Call me Stan') Tucci AND Chris Messina all in one film.
She is friends with Meryl Streep.
She is a natty deliverer of bon mots and a habitual wearer of chic all-black outfits.
She is capable of writing lines so funny and perfectly pitched that I snort in public.
She is friends with Meryl Streep.
She clearly goes to all the best parties in NYC and I bet she's a great guest.
She loves food and cooking.
She uses a Mac.
She has said that the hardest thing about writing is writing - but also that it's the best job in the world.
She is friends with Meryl Streep.
I would like to meet Nora Ephron only marginally less than I would like to meet Alan Bennett. And I don't mean to shake hands. I want dinner and then one more for the road.
Nora Ephron is marvellous. I want to be her when I grow up.
She wrote 'Silkwood'.
She wrote 'Heartburn'.
(That would - should - be enough for anybody, frankly, but there's more)
She made Julie & Julia which is very sweet but which also had Meryl Streep, Stanley ('Call me Stan') Tucci AND Chris Messina all in one film.
She is friends with Meryl Streep.
She is a natty deliverer of bon mots and a habitual wearer of chic all-black outfits.
She is capable of writing lines so funny and perfectly pitched that I snort in public.
She is friends with Meryl Streep.
She clearly goes to all the best parties in NYC and I bet she's a great guest.
She loves food and cooking.
She uses a Mac.
She has said that the hardest thing about writing is writing - but also that it's the best job in the world.
She is friends with Meryl Streep.
I would like to meet Nora Ephron only marginally less than I would like to meet Alan Bennett. And I don't mean to shake hands. I want dinner and then one more for the road.
Nora Ephron is marvellous. I want to be her when I grow up.
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
183. Feeling the fear, and doing it anyway
So regular readers will know that the new job is in Hammersmith (on the riverbank just by Hammersmith Bridge, if you fancy a visit) which is quite a way from Home, really. So I've been travelling on the Piccadilly line and trying not to mind the cost and the heat and the smell and the ENDLESS hand-chewing practised by my fellow travellers.
I have been trying to pluck up the courage (and required energy) to cycle, but I am afraid of being crushed into raspberry jam by a bus, mainly because I think if that happened Herself and the Parent would be quite upset, and I don't like upsetting them.
Whether or not cycling in London is scary is all to do with available routes. (This may be true of all cities, but I can't comment.) Cycling into the city was fine, because a)it's actually quite nearby, and b)I knew how to get round the arterial roads. But in order to get to Hammersmith without it taking a couple of days, the cyclist coming from town must take the A4 (no way in hell not never), the Fulham Road (FULL of buses and Chelsea Tractors) or the Old Brompton Road (busy, busy, busy). And, frankly, I had a failure of bravery.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday the tube was just too hot and annoying and suddenly I didn't know what my freakin' problem was. So I made sure the old bicyle was working, and set off this morning to cycle to Hammersmith. And it was fine. I only got the route wrong twice, and never disastrously, and I got to work feeling rather pleased with myself. I'm not so happy that it is now the end of the day and it's pouring with rain, but I will endure.
I felt the fear and did it anyway. A slogan not just for tossers, it seems.
I have been trying to pluck up the courage (and required energy) to cycle, but I am afraid of being crushed into raspberry jam by a bus, mainly because I think if that happened Herself and the Parent would be quite upset, and I don't like upsetting them.
Whether or not cycling in London is scary is all to do with available routes. (This may be true of all cities, but I can't comment.) Cycling into the city was fine, because a)it's actually quite nearby, and b)I knew how to get round the arterial roads. But in order to get to Hammersmith without it taking a couple of days, the cyclist coming from town must take the A4 (no way in hell not never), the Fulham Road (FULL of buses and Chelsea Tractors) or the Old Brompton Road (busy, busy, busy). And, frankly, I had a failure of bravery.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday the tube was just too hot and annoying and suddenly I didn't know what my freakin' problem was. So I made sure the old bicyle was working, and set off this morning to cycle to Hammersmith. And it was fine. I only got the route wrong twice, and never disastrously, and I got to work feeling rather pleased with myself. I'm not so happy that it is now the end of the day and it's pouring with rain, but I will endure.
I felt the fear and did it anyway. A slogan not just for tossers, it seems.
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